Is there a 2021 extension thread?

[Yellownotblue]

Just that really, I found it very informative (and exhilarating and at times heart breaking!) to read the 2020 extension threads. I couldn’t find a 2021 extension thread. Please can you direct me, or if there isn’t one, let’s start it! All welcome.

As for us - we’re awaiting PP for our extension and our architect said the work might start as early as March (ha! I’ll believe it when I see it). It’s a large extension and we will need to move out for about 9 months so I’m a bit flustered at the thought of moving out in 7 weeks’ time. We’re extending over the garage, in the garden and in the loft, and doing a shedload of other stuff from electrics to roofing and redecorating everything. We’re in SW London.

Scaffolding was erected last week. Our builder started yesterday with stripping the roof tiles at the back where the dormer will be. He also cut some of the joists so the internal strip out has begun very messy but closing the back windows has kept the mess outside for now. We have had to tape the edges of the loft hatch as dust had started coming through the seam. A small part of DDs bedroom ceiling fell out earlier today during the strip out, we shall spend more time at the back of the house I'm case a foot falls through the ceiling. Until maybe the new floor joists are installed.

I went up to have a look after the builder left and the space looked small. In the drawings it looks big enough. I guess it is difficult to picture the space until the dormer is built. The hood thing is we shall have plenty of eaves space for storage so atleast that is one positive.

We took our loft stuff into storage on Monday and I was rather amazed that the first place we went to was full. Apparently many locals have sold their homes but have no where to move to yet.

BC surveyor also made his first visit today and thankfully he agreed with our builder that we don't need the 6m+ steel at the back of the house to support the dormer ad long as there are lintels over the windows and door. This should save us a good £2k+.

We also visited the tile shop and picked our bathroom wall tiles. It then turned out to be the our plumber had just been on the phone with them about another job so we got a good discount a they put ours through our plumbers trade account. We also added underfloor heating in the bathroom. It wasn't part of the plan and not in the budget but for just under £500 including labour, we thought we might regret not getting it done. Whilst our budget is very tight, the loft bathroom is the one we really want finished as we currently don't have a bath. With a 2 month old and 4 year old, I miss having them in a bath and I can't wait. The rest of the finishes in the bedrooms up there we can do slowly ourselves.

Our build has turned into a complete shit show and I’m starting to feel that we chose the wrong builders! After the drain debacle all was going ok albeit delayed from the schedule. Then yesterday they declared they couldn’t do anymore brick work as my neighbours roof overhangs too much and needs to be cut back. This is something we told them about before they started the job! So the bricklayer downed tools and won’t be back until Tuesday. The brickwork was supposed to finish today!

I have my made to measure Velux windows on the floor in the middle of the site as we couldn’t delay the delivery, the Crittall doors are in the garden. All wrapped up but still! The worst of it is that my DIY kitchen comes at the end of next week 🤦‍♀️. If I delay it it won’t be delivered until mid November. So I’ve no choice but to accept delivery but I have no idea where it can go. The builder says they will “be flexible” and work around it but how?!?!

Oh Terraced I feel your pain.

We have two weeks until we move back in and there is no one on site today and I can’t get hold of the main guy. I phoned DH and asked him to call the owner of the firm and he (DH) was all useless about it so I now want to kill him too.

Took myself off to a bathroom showroom to cheer up and found some nice bits. Tiles are out of stock though so need to look elsewhere though who knows when they’ll be able to be fitted

We've got loads of them in at the moment trying to finish off our kitchen exension so they can switch of the old kitchen, we can move into the new, then they can make the old kitchen into a utility and loo.

And then move indoors to do the stairs - they are getting turned round. So we need to have the rooms upstairs cleared over the wekend.

The electricians have disappeared though and we can't move into new kitchen until they have finished wiring up.

And I'm becoming increasingly convinced that all the little bits they said they'd do won't get done. ....

Sympathies for everyone going through shitshow/vanishing workmen/etc.

Had the roofer on site all day today, even stayed late. Will go out and have a look in a sec, but think all the roof boarding 1 is done, insulation done, and second boarding on top done too.

He’s got to do some fiddling with the old end wall next week, then finish off the side bit.
Then temporarily board up the lantern hole and bifolds hole and maybe they might take down the ‘temp’ (2.5yrs) boarding across the back of the original house so we can finally see the space.

But he might move onto the side extension roof first not sure.

Need to remind them about the Perspex option for light.

Bifold and lantern (provisional) fitting date of 2/3rd November.

Had thought we might be ready for a Halloween party when we started! Maybe next year…

@LivingInABuildingSite maybe a fireworks party?

Realised tonight that the builders haven't actually been there now for 2 whole days. Velux was supposed to be collected today but it hasn't been. Starting to feel like they might be doing a runner on us. Have phoned main guy 7 times today with no answer but his whats app is showing as being online at 5.30 so he's obviously ignoring me.

I wish we could just sack them

@Callmejudith so sorry you're having issues with your builders, must be so stressful and frustrating especially as you're planning to move back in soon! Hope things get back on track after the weekend.

We had delivery for our roof lantern yesterday morning only to discover it was just the glass. Delivery driver said they only do the glazing and should get frame direct from the company we ordered it from. Spent rest of morning and lunchtime trying to call company for info, when finally got through they told me it would be coming on Monday! Was gutted as was planning to install today as we start plasterboarding on Monday. Then literally 15 mins later a delivery van turns up with the frame...so happy!

@Terracedtardis we're due our DIY kitchen delivery too next week. Have they been able to give you a more precise date as we were only told w/c 20th. I think you used to be able to pay extra for a specific delivery day but that option wasn't available when ordered. We're in a similar predicament about where to store until we're able to fit it. Currently have our washer and dryer in garage and worried won't be able to get to them with units in there. We've managed to hold off getting our big American style FF delivered but not sure how much longer they will store it for us...trying not to worry about that just yet!

@RebelGeek76 that’s an excellent result for the frame!

What do you need to have finished before the kitchen goes in? Just wondering if you could store some in the main room.

Up almost all last night worrying about our build. Getting ready to go over there and no doubt they’ll be no one there so another day of calling and being ignored I suspect.

I have spent the morning churning up bricks from the soil - this is only from one strip that is about the width of a spade! At this rate, I'll still be digging up bricks next year .

Landscape people are coming round tomorrow to look as I'm not sure, even between me and dp, we will finish this ourselves before winter.

We've already skipped several tonnes!! Argh!

@Callmejudith I hope you've made some progress with your builders now! It's so frustrating!

@Callmejudith That's a good point we've got to self-level the floor in original kitchen space as we had to take old quarry tiles out and there's also the boarding and plastering but I think once OH has boarded ceilings we could put some of units in middle of room so they'll only need to be moved when skimming ceilings, we might get lucky and have those skimmed before kitchen comes. Luckily flooring is going in after units fitted.

Hope you've managed to get somewhere with your builders today!

After a bit of blood, sweat and tears roof lantern is in! We managed to squeeze fitting it whilst 2yo DD was having her nap, bloody scary lifting 30kg of glass was like a scene from a comedy sketch or Chuckle Brothers "To me, to you" 🤣. We even managed to fit the glass inside out initially but luckily was relatively straightforward to refit it. Really hope I don't have to get back up on roof again for a long time!!

Wow the roof lantern is absolutely stunning!

Saga continues here. Got to the house and no one there. Phoned foreman twice, no answer. Phoned owner, no answer. Owner phoned back and said he didn’t hear my pleading voicemail from yesterday so I explained again. He said “I know I’ve not been on your job for a while but I thought you were almost done” obviously I just laughed and said that is absolutely not the case and I’d be sending him some videos of the current situation. Foreman (they are brothers) then messaged and said he had bad reception but sorry he missed my call. I replied and said “no, you missed 9 calls, there’s no one on site, no one has contacted me, we have 2 weeks left and it’s a disaster zone”. He ended up sending in one of the junior guys to tidy up a trench for the plumber and that was about it. I’ve told them they both need to be on site on Monday morning. The electrician did confirm he’s booked in for Monday. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate these guys.

@RebelGeek76 I emailed DIY kitchens and they told me my kitchen delivery is provisionally booked for Friday to Sunday next week. I’ve told my builders Friday to spur them on. However they announced on Friday they forgot to order one of the steels 🤦‍♀️The current plan is to build a container in our garden to put the kitchen in.

@Terracedtardis my builders have left a random steel in my hallway you can have that if you want

Going to order bathroom stuff today. Meeting builder at house tomorrow and am planning to have my laptop and will quickly write our a schedule for next two weeks and print it and not let him leave without it

So apparently our electrician is coming tomorrow, the joiner is coming on Tuesday and plasterer on Wednesday. As you can imagine my expectations are not high that this will actually transpire

RebelGeek - absolutely loving your roof lantern! V jealous.

Callmejudith- hope the electrician has come as promised.

Have noisy destructive activity here today, the old rear extension has a weird parapet wall between us and next door and the top has to come down/is coming down as I type.
Very noisy. At least they are able to reuse the bricks & general debris for hardcore under the second set of steps at the side of the patio.

Hoping nothing major is falling into the neighbours garden - will have to make sure the lads go round and tidy up later.

Then the roofer can finish off that edge of the roof and get started on the side extension roof.

The actual roof surface is going to be some kind of rubber (?) and that guy is booked in for next Monday. Then the rear roof at least will be watertight (apart from the obvious lantern hole).

An issue I knew would come up now needs addressing - we have a fabulous original sash window on the stairs. Currently boxed up and off site somewhere for safekeeping. The plan is to triple glaze it and put it back. But to fit the side extension roof in, it has to shrink itself by about 30cm. This could be tricky, have left the roofer and boss guy to figure it out for now.

@StrongArm sorry I missed your digging photo - that must be exhausting!

Three electricians were here at 8am - I was stunned. They've been beavering away all day.

Oh FFS!!!!!!!

Drama now with the sliding door company who are also providing the rooflight. They originally quoted for a 2.8x1.2 rooflight. The roofer told me that was too big and it needed to be 2.2x1.2. I emailed the company to say this and they amended the quote which I then confirmed was correct. I realised a couple of weeks ago that the order confirmation only had the sliding doors, not the rooflight so have been going back and forth waiting for a new confirmation. Meanwhile the surveyor tells me on whatsapp that the rooflight has been ordered and not to be concerned.

I FINALLY get the order confirmation today and the size is 2.8x1.2!! I went back and said, this is wrong it should match the quote. Surveyor replies and says "no, this is the measurement the builder gave me". What the actual fuck? Thank god I have the email saying the correct size and also the email confirming the quote. ARGGGHHHHHH

Callmejudith - argh! So what size are they actually making? I have this nightmare, esp about the bifolds as the ‘agreed floor height’ seems to be a Very Important Thing and I’m stressed it will go wrong. Not helped by the surveyor spending ages on the phone to another customer on his first visit here where it had gone wrong 🥴

StrongArm - that’s a lot of digging!

I had a go up the ladder and looked at the roof and over into next door, they’ve done a good job making sure nothing got damaged next door and now they can finish the roof structure.

Feels like a big step, even though there’s still so much to do.

Now they're trying to bamboozle me with external v internal kerb size. I have gone back and said someone needs to come out and measure it tomorrow. They seem to think the builder is the right person to give a measurement but we all know he likes to pull information out of his arse.

Oh yes, agreed floor height was also our debacle. Now terrified that is wrong too.

We're 25% of the way through the work. All seems to be going well. 3 weeks down, 9 weeks to go.

They turn up every day, tidy up as they go. Very happy with builders at the mo. Also, the main guy and the foreman are problem solvers, which I like. They've come up with a few workarounds to problems and not asked/bothered me, which is great 😂 👏

The thing that's driving me nuts today is the lead time on furniture!! Visited a store 6 weeks ago, got told 12 weeks lead time. Went in today to order a few big pieces...it's now 20 weeks lead time, which fucks up my "all finished by Christmas" plan 😭

@PoshWatchShitShoes I'm so jealous of your lovely builders...make them a cup of tea from me please. Pleased it's all going well.

Lead time is just crazy isn't it.

@Terracedtardis What a nightmare! It will be like tetris with all those deliveries.

@Callmejudith I'm sorry Dh isn't helping much and your builders have turned into shits. We are only 3 days into our build but our builders know to speak to me about anything with regards to the project. Dh knows nothing. As for builders doing a runner, have you got a retention of their fees to hold back until they finish?

@RebelGeek76 that lantern looks great. That blue sky finishes it off nicely.

I went up to the loft on Friday to see progress and I got distracted by DC in the garden thar I took a sideways step and my foot went through the ceiling over the hallway. A few scratches on my leg and my very bruised pride. Thankfully it is the exact spot where a steel rsj will be positioned so that ceiling would have hot messed up anyway.

Yesterday was day 4 on our loft conversion and only main guy turned up. He did a lot of measuring and ordering materials. Today the installation of the floor joists starts so he will have a labourer or two with him. The stairs guy also popped in and took some measurements. We expect them to to be installed around end of November when as much of the loft fit out has been completed as possible.

@Terracedtardis sounds like good progress. When we did our loft I was amazed by how quickly it went.

Had a call from the electrician at about 5 yesterday to say they’d accidentally drilled through a water pipe and there was water pouring everywhere. One of our good friends/neighbours runs a plumbing firm so the electrician had run out to his van for help. He went in and helped and is going to fix it all. Needless to say I’m not paying for it so I’ve told my friend no mates rates.

Hopeful that are guys will be on site today to start knocking around the stairs into the loft, which will be v v dusty. They keep warning us that upstairs hall ceiling likely to come down. Having had a lath and plaster ceiling come down before….not looking forward to that.